BANGARANG!!! - Phoenix, AZ warstory

Well, i must say that Phoenix was not as hot as i expected it to be. Phoenix as a whole is such a beautiful place. (Palm) Trees everywhere, nice buildings, nice places to eat. Some of the people we met where complete jerks, but there has to be some sort of downside to a city, right?

Any Here is my Daily rundown:

Thursday:
I had to work - 4 AM to 2:30 PM. Got home, showered, ate some food, and fell asleep for about three hours. Around 9PM is when Shawn S. came by and said for us to get going. Nick was already in the car waiting for me. We filled up the tank of gas, picked up Shawn's wife Ruth (You will hear more about her later) and we where off...but first we ate at Dennys. Inside joke - Bunny's are like chip fries.

Friday:
Around midnight is when we where really on the road. We where at dennys until 11:45 having a blast. Got in the car, drive for a LOOOOONG time. We finally arrived in Phoenix around 3:30 PM (Local time, as we crossed a time zone getting here.) We where staying at the Wyndam hotel. Very nice hotel, Very expensive hotel. But it was close to the event center so the pros outweighed the cons. We did some team tweaking (well, i didn't do much - I changed 2 items) and then we where hungry. We where all thinking "STEAK!" so we asked where the nearest steak house was. we got to "Kencade's" and holy crap i hate the people there. Sure, we where dressed like gamers, but to NOT profile us as low-lifes. They shoved us into the back corner, and the waiter suggested the cheapest items on the menu. What an Ass! He got us ONE refill the entire time there. Nick's lamb rack was great, Shawn's Burger was served on a toilet bowl lid, and mine and Ruth's Seafood pasta had WAY too much rosemary. He got a $5 tip for a $140 check. He did not need our money, he was taking care of other people for that nights money. So we went to the hotel pissed off, i saw some GORGEOUS women along the way (Three 8's and a 9 BTW) - test battled, and called it a night.

Saturday:
I wake up WAYYY early. 6AM. I packed all my stuff together, keeping my laptop, my DS's, my Pokewalkers, Ibuprofen for my leg, and Pokemon TCG cards i was signing for everybody. I get to the event center around 8AM, and the Juniors are going into the building. The Seniors had already started a line off to the left side of the wall. I was sitting around 50th-60th place in line. The guy in front of me asked if i could help him with his team, trading him some items from his other game, trade evolving for him, and holding his spot in line so he can go inside and play the demos and get his shiny eevee. I did the same, had him hold my spot so i could go talk with Mike Liesik about a Distribution Cart i came across (Shaymin/Regigigas), talk with Patrica and John Spurlock about their lives (Worked with them at national and World championships in past years) and talk with marrilland about hack checks. We got back in line, dealt with tons of people asking if they could "Pokewalker with them", and then John Spurlock asked me if he could keep one of my pokewalkers and he would get me a new one at nationals. I agreed. Made him happy and i did not care because i am 9,000 watts away from my final route anyway.

Alright, 1:00 rolls around and we start rolling into the event hall for registration. Saw BadIntent about 10-15 people behind me. We said hello, and then i got escorted to my first battle area.

As you can tell, the alternates are purely there to hold the items. You could probably also tell that they are all nicknamed in another language. If you guessed Hawaiian you would be correct. I thought it only right to name them in Hawaiian as i was born and raised in Hawaii, It could bring good favor from the Hawaiian gods to me and my team, and the world championships are in Hawaii. It all makes sense to me!

Please excuse me if i am a little vague on the battle details. I was focusing on winning and predicting, so please bare with me.

Round 1 Vs. Alex
Alex and me where talking a little bit before we could start, as the MC did not want us to start until a countdown was done. Alex, and the other 3 people at my table had NEVER been to one of these events. I told him that he could just do his best and have no regrets. He smiled, i gave him a Holo "Winner" Stamped Electabuzz, that i has signed. I gave this card to all of my opponents i played that day. Here is what it looks like

Anyway, on to the match. I led off with Dialga and Togekiss, while he led off with Kingdra and Magmortar. I figured he was "going against the Meta" with that team. Kingdra for kyogres, and magmortar taking advantage from drought. He uses ice beam on Togekiss barely bringing it into the yellow, and then thunderbolt the kiss to bring 'kiss to half. Dialga uses Dragon Pulse to OHKO the kingdra, and togekiss uses Tailwind. Alex then asks what tailwind does. I told him and he said "Wow - that is not an overpowered move *Rollseyes*. He sends out Palkia, i Dragon Pulse and crit the palkia. I then Reflect with the kiss and he uses thunderbolt on the kiss. The rest is a blur, but i won the match with only losing the kiss.

1-0

Round 2 Vs. Britt
She was pumped that she had won. we wished each other luck, i gave her my signature card, and we battled. I had good enough luck last round so i went again with the kiss and Dialga. She then led off with Kyogre and Ludicolo. I looked and said i knew i would have to fight this eventually. I switch Dialga into Abomasnow to drop the rain and take minimal damage from the oncoming water spout. She faked out the Abomasnow and water spouted like i thought, and i tailwinded with kiss. Togekiss then used Twister, and gets the double flinch, and abomasnow wood Hammers kyogre for the OHKO. She brings in Electivire, i blizzard and reflect. Blizzard drops vire into the red and does alright damage to ludi. I get grass knotted from the ludi (WTH?) and thunder punched the kiss, bringing it into the red. Twister and blizzard drops the vire and ludi, leaving her palkia. My tailwind peters out, so i tailwind again and switch into Dialga, palkia uses spacial rend on the kiss for the KO, i send out kyogre and Dialga used Dragon Pulse for the game.

2-0

Round 3 Vs. Chris
This match was a bit of a blur to me, and i am sorry for this match being very vague. he leads Groudon and infernape, and i lead with the ol' kiss and Dialga. I switch the Dialga into Kyogre knowing the oncoming earthquake, and i tailwind as normal. He fakes out the now Kyogre and Rock Slides for the double hit, missing the kiss. I then use reflect and hydro pump for the OHKO on groudon, and i get thunder punched from infernape for minimal damage thanks to reflect. he sends out Dialga i believe, i twister for the flinch on the dialga and hydro pump the infernape for the OHKO. he then sends out electivire, i then proceed to win the match.

3-0

Round 4 Vs. Michael
This guy was the epitome of excited. He was bouncing, and was talking about how he was lucky to get this far. This was by far the closest match i had. He leads ludicolo and kyogre, and i lead kiss and dialga. I thought i had this match in the bag, but being out-predicted is a hard thing to overcome. I switch to Abomasnow. Michael said that he had yet to fight one of those. Ludi fakes out the now abomasnow and i get water spouted. Like always, and kiss tailwinds. He gets wide eyed and said "Oh jeez". Me being the idiot i am, i wood hammer the kyogre to only have it switched for Toxicroak. I twister for the flinch on the ludicolo. I then think, alright - i will wood hammer the toxicroak predicting the kyogre to counter the hail. He dosen't. He sucker punches kiss to fail due to kiss setting up a reflect. I then blizzard and twister, eventually dropping the toxicroak. The rest of the match is a little vague, but it came down to my deep red Diagla vs his deep red ludicolo - my tailwind peters out, and rain is in play. I loose a very close match, and Michael goes onto getting 2nd for the entire day. so i do not feel so bad about that.

Props:
Me and Ruth both making it into the yellow section.
Shawn and Nick getting into the orange
Tailwind taking EVERYBODY by surprise
Ruth for breeding my Togekiss and Abomasnow.
Ruth and Shawn telling me about Twister on Togekiss
Found the BEST Chinese buffet

Slopps:
My poor memory on some of the matches.
My headphones starting to fail
My knee hurting all day
Not being able to eat all day.

Wood hammer is for Kyogre, which isn't going to OHKO him and activate the sash anyways. He went 4hp/252atk/252spatk I believe -- I know he did 252atk, 4hp, and a ton of spatk at least just for glancing at his stats. Wood hammer is a guaranteed OHKO on Kyogre, which cannot be achieved with grass knot due to Kyogre's special defense being higher than its physical defense. It's a situational move.

Wood hammer is for Kyogre, which isn't going to OHKO him and activate the sash anyways. He went 4hp/252atk/252spatk I believe -- I know he did 252atk, 4hp, and a ton of spatk at least just for glancing at his stats. Wood hammer is a guaranteed OHKO on Kyogre, which cannot be achieved with grass knot due to Kyogre's special defense being higher than its physical defense. It's a situational move.

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Wood Hammer's recoil will break the Sash, despite how much it does to Kyogre. I guess the Sash can come in handy if you aren't going up against something you'd Wood Hammer.

I'm fairly certain Sitrus > Sash in the case of Wood Hammer. Since Hammer can activate the Sitrus and counter the recoil. Situational, yes, but something to think about. I was considering trying it out at some point anyway.

Wood Hammer's recoil will break the Sash, despite how much it does to Kyogre. I guess the Sash can come in handy if you aren't going up against something you'd Wood Hammer.

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Well duh. A sash is nearly worthless against a Kyogre. Unless Kyogre gets a crit or something, it has no chance of OHKOing you. Several of Kyogre's usual partners have priority attacks as well which can chip away the sash anyways.

Wood hammer is pretty much ONLY for Kyogre. Blizzard takes care of Groudon, albeit slightly less effectively than grass knot, but Groudon is slower and not as big of an issue as a Kyogre anyways. You lose a bit of damage on things like Palkia, since you either blizzard them or break your sash, but some people consider Kyogre a threat big enough to warrant using wood hammer. It also helps versus Blissey, not that she's that common.

And yeah, I'd consider sitrus as well, although it's by no means mandatory. Sash helps with crap like Palkia flamethrower, while sitrus gives you extra health versus things that can't OHKO you like opposing Abomasnows.

Well, i am home now. And of course Sitrus was considered - it was on the wooper if i felt the need to switch. And in the last match, yeah it probably would have got me the game. I had sash on there for the fact that there was a lot of Mach punch Hitmontops, Low kick <insert name here>, and quite a bit of Heracross's.

Wood hammer was there ONLY for kyogre. Kyogre is a big enough threat to warrant it.

Totally awesome to meet you man. It's crazy reading you talk about someone else being excited. You were really energetic and from what I saw, you were having a great time. The team concept is really nice. I would have liked for it to have gone farther, but it has great potential.

By the way, I like how you write out the actual stats instead of the EVs. It's... clearer somehow. I'll be looking for you at Nationals.

Yeah, hey.
It's me.
You faced me 3rd round.
Btw: My name is: Chaz (Aoi), not chris, lol.
And I think you have my team way off dude.
I leaded a Kyogre and Ludicolo.
Your right kind of about the Electivire though.
The whole match, the way you explained was a little off though.

Also, to refresh your memory.
I got a crit on you with my Kyogre's water spout first turn.